| Crews at the Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal
Facility finished processing one class of sarin-filled shell this week and
retooled to work on the last batch of sarin-filled shells in the Anniston
inventory.
Workers destroyed the last of the facility’s 8-inch sarin-filled
shells last Sunday afternoon and spent the remainder of the week starting
work on destruction of 105-mm sarin-filled shells.
The facility was scheduled to begin destroying the 105-mm
shells this weekend. Slightly more than 74,000 of them are at Anniston Army
Depot, and destruction of the stockpile is expected to take six months.
The Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility in Umatilla,
Ore., destroyed 1,387 sarin-filled rockets and 19,287 pounds of sarin between
Thursday, July 14, and Wednesday, July 20. The facility has destroyed 22,726
rockets and 230,777 pounds of agent.
Most other processing facilities this week were quiet, because
of ongoing maintenance or incidents at the sites.
Processing stopped at the Pine Bluff Chemical Agent Disposal
Facility in White Hall, Ark., last Sunday after a small fire was detected
in a pan that catches ash from a furnace where rockets are burnt. The incident
is under investigation.
Processing also has stopped at the Newport Chemical Agent
Disposal Facility in Newport, Ind. Crews are continuing to evaluate the neutralization
process used to destroy the VX. The process creates a byproduct called hydrolysate,
which has been found to catch fire at a much lower temperature than first
thought — 68 to 88 degrees Fahrenheit, rather than the 200 degrees that was
expected.
Terry Arthur, a spokeswoman for Newport, said officials still
were looking for ways to raise the flashpoint of the material.
"They’re working it from a number of different angles, but
they are continuing to work it, and we’re not going to start up again until
they’ve resolved it," she said.
Officials hope to resume processing by the middle of next
month.
The Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility in Tooele, Utah,
is undergoing maintenance and retooling to destroy stockpiles of blister
agent on the premises. Processing is expected to resume next spring.
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